Zohran Mamdani named a former judge to his Advisory Committee on the Judiciary despite court filings accusing the judge of failing to address alleged racism and antisemitism at a nonprofit where he serves in a leadership role.
Milton Tingling, who was appointed to the newly formed committee last month, is also board chair of the West Harlem Development Corporation, or WHDC. The organization is facing scrutiny in a lawsuit over alleged discriminatory conduct by its executive director, Zaed Ramadan.
In the lawsuit, former board member Vince Morgan alleges that “Ramadan … engaged in a pattern of unprofessional and discriminatory behavior in the workplace, including racist, antisemitic, and otherwise ethnically offensive remarks.”
The filing claims Ramadan’s remarks escalated after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. According to the legal documents, Ramadan allegedly held a two-hour meeting in Morgan’s office in the days after the attack with New York State Assemblyman Charles Fall and a Brooklyn imam to discuss how WHDC should respond.
The imam was identified in the lawsuit as Siraj Wahhaj, a controversial Brooklyn religious figure who was once named an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and who urged “jihad” on New York City in the early 2000s.
Following the meeting about the Oct. 7 attacks, which killed 1,200 people, “Ramadan informed plaintiff he had become very skilled at using language that would pass the Jewish community standards for rhetoric considered antisemitic, and he devised special code words to use so his anti-Israeli statements and statements about Jews could not be directly described as antisemitic, although the statements were made to highlight Jewish greed and attempt to control and manipulate New York politics,” the lawsuit states.
In a separate alleged incident, Ramadan — who also sits on the board of the Council on American Islamic Relations in New York City — “spent considerable time describing how [former] Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine and his staff conspired against him in the past to prove why he believes the Jews unfairly control New York against the interest of other religion and ethnic groups,” according to the lawsuit. Levine is now New York City Comptroller.
Morgan, who is African American and formerly directed a WHDC housing program supporting affordable housing co-ops in West Harlem, says he was disturbed by Ramadan’s alleged comments about Jews and other minorities. He filed a whistleblower complaint about Ramadan with Tingling in February 2024 and also recorded his boss, recordings that were provided to The Post. Morgan later told the Columbia Spectator: “I started recording him, because I was like, I don’t think people would believe me if I said this, one. Two, all he has to do is deny it.”
Ramadan’s comments also allegedly included making statements about how “Jews stole Palestinian land” and allegedly used “graphic descriptions of rape and violence perpetrated…against Palestinian women and children, including cutting of body parts by Israeli soldiers whom he described as ruthless Jewish oppressors,” according to court papers.
But Tingling is accused of ignoring Morgan’s complaints, and he claims he even “retaliated against him by sending threatening correspondence and undermining his authority within the organization,” in the lawsuit.
Morgan also claims he was also prevented from doing his job advising Housing Development Finance Corporation owners.
“Tingling’s failure to address these antisemitic and racist rantings caused plaintiff untold hardship because he had to continue to listen to these tormenting racists’ language despite his protests,” the court papers state.
Neither Ramadan or Tingling returned The Post’s requests for comment. The West Harlem Development Corporation denied all the allegations brought forward by Morgan in their court filing.
In May 2024, Larry English, former chair of Community Board 9, was appointed to the board and suggested hiring outside counsel to probe Morgan’s complaints, but the motion was dismissed, court papers say.
In other recordings, Ramadan also allegedly called Ross Frommer, the vice president for government and community affairs for Columbia University, which provides tens of millions in funding for the WHDC to aid the local community, “a messy f—ing Zionist Jewish guy who has done nothing in two decades for Washington Heights,” according to court papers.
Tingling, who served on the New York County Supreme Court until he retired in 2014, is the Manhattan County Clerk.
In a statement announcing the18 members of the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on the Judiciary, including Tingling, Mamdani said: “The Committee will help ensure that our judicial system reflects the city it serves, applies the rule of law universally and does so without favor.”
The panel has already faced criticisms for not representing the Jewish community with any of its appointees.
Morgan was fired in January 2025. In court papers he claimed, “plaintiff’s termination was due in part to his questions regarding abuse of finances and procedures.”
